1.6.

1 FRAGMENTS- IDHAAFAH PART I

- To understand the concept of fragments
Learning Objectives
- To understand the idhaafah

Lesson Review

Now that we have completed our study of the four properties of the ‫اسم‬, it is time to study how
these ‫’اسم‬s work together. In other words, we will now study fragments. A fragment is
something that is more than a word and less than a sentence.

Let’s look at some fragments:

 The car of Muhammad

 Our classroom

These are fragments because they are not complete ideas or thoughts. A sentence offers a
complete thought. For example:

 The car of Muhammad is nearby.

 Our classroom looks organized.

In the two fragments above, each has an ‘of’ in it. The first is obvious but the second has a
hidden ‘of’ as well. Another way to write ‘our classroom’ is ‘classroom of ours.’

There are three kinds of ‘of’s in English. We need to understand the English before the Arabic:
1. The ‘of’ that you can see
a. Example: The car of Muhammad: This is the easiest one to find.
2. The ‘of’ of possession
a. Her, his, my, our, your, and their
b. There is always a hidden ‘of’ when these words are used. We just need to
rearrange them to find the ‘of’
i. Examples (note that they mean the same thing):
1. ‘her notebook’ becomes ‘notebook of hers’

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 2. ‘my watch’ becomes ‘watch of mine’
3. The ‘of’ in an apostrophe
a. Example: Allah’s house; this is the same thing as ‘house of Allah.’ The word with
the apostrophe always goes after the ‘of.’
i. ‘Abdullah’s computer’ becomes ‘computer of Abdullah’
ii. ‘Faadhil’s bag’ becomes ‘bag of Faadhil’

English has three ways of using ‘of’ but in Arabic they are all the same. In Arabic, there is only
one way of saying ‘of’: by using an ‫( إِضِافِة‬Idhaafah).

The ‫( إضافة‬Idhaafah) has 2 parts:

ُ
1. ‫( مضاف‬Mudhaaf)- the word before ‘of’
ُ
2. ‫( مضافِإ َْله‬Mudhaaf ilayh)- the word after ‘of’

ُ ُ
In Arabic, we never write ‘of.’ It doesn’t exist. We just have a ‫( مضاف‬Mudhaaf) and a ‫مضافِإ َْله‬
(Mudhaaf ilayh). The ‘of’ is implied to be between the two.

There are a few rules about ‫ إضافة‬that we need to remember:

ُ ُ
1. Two parts: the ‫ مضاف‬and the ‫مضافِإ َْله‬
ُ ُ
2. Nothing comes between the ‫ مضاف‬and ‫مضافِإ َْله‬.
ُ
3. The ‫ مضاف‬is always:
a. Light
b. Unable to take ‫ال‬
ُ
4. ‫ مضافِإ َْله‬is always:
a. In the ‫ جر‬status. Recall that we learned in Unit 1.2.1 that ‫ جر‬is the word after ‘of.’
ُ
Now we see that it’s ‫ جر‬because the ‫ مضافِإ َْله‬is actually the word after ’of.’

ُ ُ ُ
Let’s look at the fragment ِ‫كتابِالل‬. Notice that the ‫ مضاف‬comes first and the ‫ مضافِإ َْله‬is second.
ُ ُ
As you can see, the ‫ مضاف‬is light and has no ‫ال‬. Also, the ‫ مضافِإ َْله‬is in the ‫ جر‬status, so this is an
‫إضافة‬.

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When trying to figure out if two words are ‫ مضاف‬and ‫مضافِإ َْله‬, ask yourself:
ُ
1. Is the ‫ مضاف‬light, and does it have ‫?ال‬
a. If it is light and does not have ‫ال‬, it passes the test. Move onto checking the
ُ
‫مضافِإ َْله‬.
ُ
2. Is the ‫ مضافِإ َْله‬in the ‫ جر‬status?
ُ ُ
a. If it is, then the ‫ مضاف‬and the ‫ مضافِإ َْله‬come together to form a proper ‫إضافة‬.
3. If any one of the categories do not match, it does not qualify as an ‫إضافة‬.

Let’s try some examples. For the following, determine if the fragment qualifies as an ‫إضافة‬. If so,
explain how.
ْ ُ ْ
1. ِ‫مريمِبنت‬
ُْ ْ
2. ِ‫قومِنوح‬
ُْ ُ
3. ِ‫رسولِالل‬

Answers:
ْ ُ ْ
1. ِ‫مريمِبنت‬
ُ
a. First we look at the ‫مضاف‬. Is ‫ م ْري ُِم‬light? Yes, it does not have tanween. Does it
have ‫ ?ال‬No. So far, it looks okay.
ُ ْ
b. Next we look at the ‫مضافِإ َْله‬. Is ِ‫ بنت‬in the ‫ جر‬status? No, it is in the ‫ رفع‬status, so
this is not an ‫إضافة‬.
ُْ ْ
2. ِ‫قومِنوح‬
ُ
a. ‫ ق ْو ِم‬is light and does not have ‫ال‬. So far, it looks okay as a ‫مضاف‬.
ُ ُ
b. Is ِ‫ ن ْوح‬in the ‫ جر‬status? Yes it is, so this is a correct ‫مضافِإ َْله‬, making it a correct
‫إضافة‬.

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3. ِ‫رسولِالل‬
ُ ُ
a. Let’s look at ‫رس ْو ِل‬. It is both light and has no ‫ال‬. Furthermore, the word ِ‫ الل‬is in
the ‫ جر‬status. Therefore, this is a correct ‫إضافة‬.

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